Jan. 10, 2013
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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. / Spencer Platt, Getty

by USA TODAY

by USA TODAY

NEW YORK â?? Stocks ended higher Thursday as investors waited for more indications on the health of U.S. companies from earnings reports. Economic reports were mixed.

The Nasdaq composite, Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 all climbed, by 0.5%, 0.6% and 0.75%, respectively. Settling at 1,472.12, the S&P 500 saw its highest close since December 2007.

European Central Bank head Mario Draghi says the struggling euro area should start growing again later this year, but warned that the region has yet to reach a turning point in its struggle with recession and handling its government debt load. The comments bolstered expectations that the worst of the region's crisis may be behind it.

Investors were also cheered by a report that showed China may gradually be emerging from its worst economic downturn since the 2008 global crisis. Export growth for the world's second-largest economy rebounded strongly in December.

That good news was offset by a U.S. government report that weekly applications for unemployment benefits ticked up last week. The Labor Department said applications rose 4,000 to 371,000, the most in five weeks. The previous week's total was revised lower.

U.S. companies are sitting on record cash piles, having rebuilt their balance sheets following the financial crisis that started five years ago. Analysts at Deutsche Bank predict that corporations will stop adding to those cash piles this year and instead start returning more cash to shareholders, helping push the S&P 500 up to 1,575 by the end of the year. That would be a 10% increase from where it ended 2012.

Supervalu rose 14% after announcing that it had reached a $3.3 billion deal to sell five of its biggest grocery chains - Albertsons, Acme, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's and Star Market - to an investor group led by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.

The S&P 500 is already up 2.7% so far this year after lawmakers reached a last-minute compromise to stop the U.S. from going over the "fiscal cliff," a reference to sharp tax increases and across-the-board government spending cuts that could have pushed the economy back into recession. A good start to the earnings season this week also helped the market after aluminum company Alcoa predicted rising demand for aluminum this year.

Yet while the budget deal avoided many of the tax increases, it only put off the so-called sequestration, or spending cuts, that were part of the fiscal cliff threat.

Ben Schwarz, chief market strategist at Light Speed Financial, said stocks are unlikely to make substantial gains until lawmakers deal comprehensively with the government spending issue.

"Everybody gave each other high fives, running up and down in Washington because they did the fiscal cliff, but the big deal is about to come and smack them upside their head, all the real issues that they didn't want to deal with," Schwarz said. "Most people are now thinking better to be safe than sorry."

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose 3 basis points to 1.89%. The yield on the note, which rises as bonds fall, has jumped almost 29 basis points in the past month.

Other stocks making big moves:

- Urban Outfitters rose 4.7% after the company said that it had record sales for the two months ending in December.

- Jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co. sank 4.5% after reporting that its sales increased at a slower pace than previously expected during the critical holiday shopping season. The company said its full-year earnings would come in at the low end of its prior forecast.

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